Loneliness in The Great Gatsby Essay Example

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a very well known book. The book has a lot of different themes and life lessons in it. One of the main life lessons that is mentioned throughout the entirety of the book is how money can't buy happiness. In the book it showed how people who are only concerned about money are very unhappy in their everyday life. Each character is very different yet they all have one very similar trait. That being loneliness and how it affected their own lives and other around them. While some people believe that the money is what drives all the characters, it is clear that they are all lonely. Loneliness is the reason behind what drives each character's actions.

Jay Gatsby is the main character in the book, he is talked about a lot. One of the biggest things that is associated with Gatsby in the book are his extravagant parties. Nick describes them by saying, “There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights… on week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight... And on Mondays eight servants... toiled all day… repairing the ravages of the night before”(Fitzgerald 39). Gatsby is known for his tremendous parties, which includes a tremendous amount of strangers that show up, there's food, and there's entertainment. A big thing that was obvious to readers was all the random people constantly coming and going. In the book, when Gatsby was asked by Daisy how he lives in his hge house all alone, Gatsby then says “ I keep it always full of interesting people, night and day. People who do interesting things”(Fitzgerald 90). Gatsby has random people at his parties and at his house that he has never met before. In chapter 3 Nick Carraway is at his first party of Gatsby's, and he says “ Suddenly one of these gypsies, in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and, moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform”(Fitzgerald 41). Gypsies are people who float around to different parties. The fact that gypsies are showing up, just shows that the parties are full of a bunch of random people. This is how Gatsby deals with his loneliness, by throwing huge parties and filling his house with guests. Gatsby would not be throwing huge parties full of people he did not know, if he was married and did not live alone. His loneliness roots from the fact that he lives in a mansion, with just himself. Gatsby's loneliness is the reason behind why he's so obsessed with Daisy and why he's trying everything he can to get Daisy.

Another character who shows traits of loneliness is Nick Carraway. Nick also lives alone, Nick said “Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and i'd known Tom in college”(Fitzgerald 5), other than Daisy, Nick really doesn't have much of a family. To make them even more distant, Daisy lives in East Egg, and Nick lives in West Egg so they don't see each other very often. Throughout the book Nick shows jealousy of Gatsby. Nick feels like Gatsby has everything like money and a ton of people who appear at his parties. At one of Gatsby's parties that Nick attends, he said “I lunk off in the direction of the cocktail table- the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone”(Fitzgerald 42). Nick feels invisible compared to Gatsby. Nicks loneliness may be what drives how he interacts with all the other characters and why he shows traits of jealousy.

The last character that is very lonely is Daisy Buchanan, she was told to wait for Gatsby while he was serving in WW1. During this time, Daisy got very lonely waiting for Gatsby so she filled that loneliness by finding someone else, “Suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men, and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed… She wanted her life shaped now, immediately – and the decision must be made by some force – of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality – that was close at hand”(Fitzgerald 151). Daisy then found Tom and married him, but they weren't in love, they were just both lonely. Little does she know that marrying him will actually end up making her feel even more lonely than before. Tom is very violent and not a good husband to Daisy. Right after Daisy gives birth to their child she said “Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl”(Fitzgerald 16). Daisy gives birth to her child alone, and her husband is nowhere to be found. Daisys loneliness in her marriage may be a result of her going from guy to guy and throwing herself around, she feels alone and worthless.

It's very evident that these three characters are all very lonely and that's what drives how they act with each other and just as an individual. A big theme throughout the book is money, and is thought to buy happiness and solve all our problems, but as you know, money is unable to buy happiness. Gatsby, Nick, and Daisy all have a good amount of money but at the end of the day they all are still lonely. That is their biggest struggle, this is why Gatsby has to throw huge parties. Nick made jealous comments, and Daisy slept around with different men, all to just feel loved and surrounded by people, they did not want to feel lonely anymore.